Nikki Haley Accused Ron DeSantis of 'Recruiting' Chinese Companies for This Reason

Republican candidate Nikki Haley is proving to be a force to be reckoned with, given her rising fame since campaigning for the 2024 presidential elections began. As incredible as she is, the campaigning team that supports her is doing everything in its power to hopefully secure a big win for her. In one such attempt, her campaign recently went after Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republic candidate who’s also competing for candidature—her rival. According to the Daily Mail reports, Haley’s team accused the Governor of Flordia of allegedly covering up evidence concerning the state’s economic development push via a Chinese company’s financial aid.

The accusation comes after The Washington Examiner reported DeSantis involving Chinese investments in the aforementioned matter for ‘Select Florida', formerly known as "Enterprise Florida," a public-private economic development partnership enterprise. Haley’s campaign uncovered the fact that Select Florida’s website had eliminated the trace of a 2020 report consisting of 146 pages that not only mentions China a total of 75 times but also included the location of an international satellite office in Hong Kong as per reports in The Messenger.

A spokesperson for Haley issued an official statement that accuses DeSantis of the alleged involvement. “Ron DeSantis has been knee-deep in recruiting Chinese companies to Florida for years," claimed the person. In addition, he mentioned that for him to further campaign for president, “he’s going to great lengths to hide all the evidence”. Furthermore, the spokesperson added that the more DeSantis secures a win, the more likely he’s “lying”.

As of now, DeSantis nor his representatives have issued a direct comment on the accusations against him from Haley’s campaign. But a source did speak to The Messanger about why ‘China’ and the mention of a Hong Kong Satellite Office were stricken from the records. As per the source, some articles from the website were taken down because it was “outdated information on a website for an organization that the governor abolished”. In short, it was all part of an upgrade. 

Furthermore, DeSantis’ office clarified that Select Florida’s forerunner severed all ties with Chinese-related businesses this year. The reason for this is the infiltration of China’s military into Hong Kong’s stock exchange. DeSantis’ administration added, “Governor DeSantis and his administration have been unpacking the educational, economic, contractual, intellectual, and security issues related to China since he took office in 2019.” Representatives of his administration further clarified that “the deep reach of covert Chinese interests” is taking “persistent effort” to uncover.

This isn’t the first time Haley and DeSantis have clashed with Chinese involvement. Haley’s retort comes after her rival’s campaign threw shade at her for her ties to China during her reign as South Carolina’s governor.

He took swipe after swipe, pointing out her alleged “dangerous judgment” during her time as Governor via an ‘attack ad’ in recent weeks. Whether or not they’ll continue to banter on the matter is yet to be determined.